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Jung Sook lifted her face to the awakening sun as she breathed in deeply.  The early morning air was filling her with joy today.  Although it was still summer, today had greeted her with the customary chill of autumn.  She was going to savor it while it lasted.  Fall was her favorite season.  She loved the crispness of the atmosphere, the scent the damp earth released, the bold colors of the leaves on the trees, and the cool breeze that enveloped her.  She hated the oppressive heat of summer and always looked forward to the colder weather that autumn introduced. 

This morning, she was headed for her school.  The girls would meet her in an hour to begin their reading lessons.  She had much to prepare and was running a little later than she had planned on.  The one constant irritant was that, on her path to the school, she had to pass the practice grounds of the hwarang.  The only reason this bothered her was that Soo Ho was among their ranks.

And he’d had his eye on her for a while now.  Over two months for sure.

He hadn’t noticed her two years ago.  Or even last summer.  He’d been too busy chasing innocent maidens around.  Trying to coax a kiss from their rosy lips.  He’d never even glanced her way.  What use was a young widow to a boy like him?  Especially one as plain as she. 

He had kissed many a beautiful girl.  She was shocked that he’d even torn his eyes from one of their lovely faces long enough to meet her gaze.  But he had.  Several times as she’d walked by the walls surrounding the hwarang compound.  And early in the morning especially, she’d often caught sight of him sitting with his back to that wall.  Bolding perusing her form as she passed by.

He’d even called out to her more than once.  Though she had ignored him.  She was hopeful that she wouldn’t catch sight of him today.  He’d been missing this entire week.  In fact, she hadn’t seen his bold eyes for nearly two weeks now.  Maybe she could relax. 

She decided to do just that.  And hummed a happy tune as she passed the training grounds which the king’s elite guard occupied.  And today she passed by unmolested.  And unharassed.  Breathing a sigh of relief.  The coast was clear.

––

She drew a deep breath of that fresh air once again as she stepped out of the doors of the school and began to head for home.  The heat of the day had already burned away.  She was being enveloped by the cool air she so loved.  Though she had little hope that this cold snap would last.  Too much of the summer remained for its heat not to stifle her again.

She happily wandered down the road for a while, humming the same cheerful tune that had been dancing in her heart this morning.  She felt light today for some peculiar reason.  That was true…until she caught sight of a slowly ambling man up ahead.  Even from several yards away and from this odd vantage point of walking behind him, she instantly recognized the current bane of her existence.  Soo Ho.

But something about his posture hit her funny.  As she examined him, she recognized what was so strange.  The boy’s head was bent.  His eyes firmly planted on the ground.  As she came level with him, she darted a quick glance his way and noted the sorrowful expression on his face.

She wondered at his obvious distress.  Even as she passed by him without a word.  But a quarter mile down the road, she realized that she’d left something behind at the school.  She turned around and headed back.  She was lost in thought, her eyes trained on a point in the distance to her right.  So it was that she came to a quick stop when she suddenly plowed into him.

Just as startled as she, he threw his hands out to steady her shoulders as her head swung around, and her forehead abruptly connected with his.

“Ouch!” she cried out.

His eyes widened in shock as he took note of the rather pallid young woman whose shoulders he was now clutching. 

“Watch where you’re going!” he gasped as his eyes searched her face for clues as to the reason that she would have found it necessary to run him down on the open road.

She glanced up at him in surprise.  “I’m so sorry!”

But then she realized to whom she was speaking.  She was quite familiar with his antics.  Mostly because he had kissed several of her older students.  Over the last year and a half, those young girls had all been abuzz with stories of the handsome hwarang.  He’d gotten himself into trouble with several of them before he’d joined the ranks of the king’s elite.  A gaggle of disappointed girls had mourned the loss of his presence in their neighborhood.  He’d spent the summer confined in the hwarang’s compound.

And the girls’ teacher had sighed with relief.  In the hope that perhaps now those silly girls would focus on more important matters.  Like their studies.  Perhaps, they’d concentrate on learning to read.  Or mastering the finer points of writing.  But none of them seemed to value an education quite as much as Jung Sook did.  And all of them seemed to be so much more boy crazy than she had ever been.

Truthfully, she’d never indulged in a romance with a boy.  No young man had ever looked her way.  She had spent her youth keeping her head down and avoiding eye contact with the boys.  She knew that she was quite plain.  Her father had often reminded her that she had been blessed with neither an attractive body nor a beautiful face.  He had frequently mourned the existence of his youngest.  Convinced that she would be impossible to marry off.

Yet at the tender age of fifteen, she’d been betrothed to Dong Nam.  Her father had told her that she was lucky that the wealthy man had wanted her.  But she had never understood why he’d chosen her.  And she had never felt blessed to be singled out by a man twenty-four years older than she.

As a young man, Dong Nam had traveled, spending his time accumulating wealth through his business along the trade routes.  He hadn’t taken the time to get married.  In his early thirties, he’d married a beautiful woman, but she had never given him any children.  She had passed away the year that Jung Sook had turned fifteen.  Dong Nam had come to visit her father shortly thereafter.  On business.  The two men had been old friends.

Jung Sook had been the last of her parents’ children still living at home then.  Perhaps that was how she had attracted his notice.  She had greeted him politely and served him tea per her mother’s request.  His eye had fallen on her immediately, and he had spoken openly of his interest in marrying her.  But his reasoning behind such an alliance had remained a mystery to her. 

Except that he had been one of her father’s good friends.  Two peas in a pod, they’d been.  She shuddered as she recalled their similarities.

Her father had been eager to marry her off.  To have the last of his children settled in life.  She would no longer burden him if she married.  She’d be someone else’s problem. 

A few short months later, she’d spoken her vows and found herself married to Dong Nam.  Inexplicably tied to a cruel man.  Never understanding why he would choose to marry such an unattractive lass as she.  After all, he’d been a man of wealth.  Couldn’t he have bought himself a beauty?  Again?

But now she knew that he had simply hoped that her youth would help him solve his problem.  Her mother had given her father eight children.  Dong Nam must have believed that Jung Sook would be just as fertile as her mother had been.  But apparently, the girl had failed to be alluring.  The man hadn’t been attracted to her in the least.  That had been the cause of her greatest distress.  And his mammoth fury.

Honestly, she wished she could simply forget that season of her life.  But no matter how she tried to block it out, there were certain days that those memories just kept intruding.